47962] 
bleeds with it. Peace to thee, generous 
fwain! I fee thou.walkeft off with an- 
guifh—but thy joys fhall balance it; for 
happy is thy cottage, and happy is the 
fharer of it, and happy are the lambs 
which {port about you !”’ 
The value of fenfibility is beft feen in 
the moft trying fituations. Who would 
not wifh for generous tendernefs, as well 
as honour and integrity, in the friend to 
whom he fhould bequeath the important 
charge of guarding the property and 
the innocence, and fuperintending the 
education, of his orphan children ? 
the moment of diftrefs for the lofs of a 
parent, a wife, or a child, who would 
not prefer, as the companion of his for- 
rows, a friend who will kindly fhare 
his griefs, and echo his fighs, to one 
whofe infenfible nature, er whofe cold 
~ philofophy, would lead him to treat life 
as a jeft, and all its fond attachments as 
childith weakneffes, and who would be 
capable of infulting the filent forrows 
of a wounded heart with unfeafonably 
pleafantry ? On the bed of ficknefs, 
what is there, next to confcious inno- 
cence—mens fibi confcia recti—fo confola- 
tory as the prefence of a friend, whofe 
fenfibility will prompt him to liften with 
attention to your ‘ tale of {ymptoms,”’ 
and té prevent your wants by kind af- 
fiduities ? 
To ftimulate benevolence—to render 
focial intercourfe interefting and delight- 
ful—to foften afperities of temper—to 
promote gentlenefs of manners—to ex- 
cite horror and indignation againit favage 
and ferocious practices—to infpire a 
noble energy, and generous ardour, in 
the profecution of philanthropic defigns ; 
fuch are the legitimate offices, the happy 
fruits, of fenfibility. Can it admit of a 
doubt, whether it ought to be cherifhed 
or repreffed ? 
The affectation of fenfibility every one 
muf defpife ; it is ridiculous in a woman; 
in a man it is difgufting. The real ha- 
bit, carried to fuch excefs as to enervate 
the mind, to unfit it for laborious and 
painful duties, and to deprive it of that 
felf-command which a moment of dan- 
ger requires, is a culpable weaknefs. 
The mother who, when fhe faw her 
child’s clothes on fire, inftead of feizing, 
on the inftant, the proper means of ex- 
tinguifhing the flame, feli into a fit, and 
left her child to perifh, was to be blamed 
as well as pitied; for the had negleéted 
to brace up her mind to the tone of firm- 
nefs neceflary for meeting the poflible ills 
wf life, ‘The mother who was capable 
£ 
. Proverbs. of Ben Sira. 
At 
709 
of retiring to write a pathetic narrative 
of her dying daughter’s fufferings, at 
the moment when fhe ought to have been 
performing the laft offices of maternal 
tendernefs, was a contemptible mafs of 
affectation. But fuch characters would 
not exift, to bring fenfibility into dif- 
credit, if, while the heart is foftened by 
frequently prefenting before the ima- 
gination fictitious {cenes of diftrefs, due 
care were taken to enlighten the under- 
ftanding, and to employ the active powers 
in offices of humanity and kindnefs. 
The beit corrective of the ridiculous fol- 
lies of affe€tation is a well-inftructed 
mind : and the languid imbecility which 
pafiive fympathy tends to produce, can 
only be prevented by the vigorous ex- 
ertions of aétive beneficence. The 
ma{culine Genius of Philofophy would 
no longer be afhamed to own Senfibility 
for his fifter, if fhe would always keep 
in mind the maxim of the good Marcus 
Aurelius—‘“ Neither virtue nor vice con- 
fifts in receiving impreilions but in action.” 

Io the Editor of the Montbly Magazine. 
SIR, 
I Send you a tranflation of the Proverbs 
of Ben Sira, who is believed to have 
been the nephew of the prophet Jeremiah. 
They were publifhed, with a Colleétion 
of Hebrew Adages, at Franeker, 1597, 
by Drufius, and I believe have never yet 
appeared in Englith. 
‘¢ Honour the phyfician while thou 
wanteit him not. 
* Leave the fon, who is not a fon, to 
ftrugele with the ftream. : 
Pick the bone which falls in your way. 
Gold muft be beat, and a child muft 
be correéted. 
Be good thyfelf, and withhold not thy 
hand from the good. 
Woeto the wicked and to their adhe- 
rents ! 
+ Scatter thy bread upon the face of 
the waters, and in the deferts, and thou 
fhalt find it at the end. 
\Haft thou feen a black afs? Neither a 
lack one nor a white one. 
[This the fcholiaft explains, “ learn 
always fo to anfwer as not to involve 
yourfelf in any difficulty.” This ftory 

* The Latin is * Filium non filium fine ut in 
aque furmo remiget”’ ‘This phrafeology re~ 
fembles the uwntne auncne of Sophocles. 
+ A metaphor (fays the commentator) taken 
from the hufbandmen, who {ctter their feed 
upon every foil ; and applied ta the exercife and 
reward of charity. 
4X2 
a 
